Nat : One's too many an' a hundred's not enough.

Don Birnam : Just give me another drink.
Nat : Mr. Birnam, this is the morning?
Don Birnam : That's when you need it most - in the morning. Haven't you learned that yet? At night this stuff's a drink. In the morning, it's medicine.
Show less «

Don Birnam : Do you ever lie in your bed looking at the window? A little daylight's coming through and you start to wonder. Is it getting lighter? Is it getting darker? Is it dawn or is it dusk? That's a terrifying problem, Nat. Because, if its dawn, you're dead! The bars are closed. The liquor stores aren't open until nine o'clock and you can't last until nine o'clock! Or, it may be Sunday. That's the worst. No liquor stores at all and you guys wouldn't open a bar until one o'clock. Why? Why, Nat?
Nat : Because we got to go to church once in awhile, that's why.
Don Birnam : Yeah. When a guy needs it most!
Show less «

Don Birnam : If that's going to be your attitude Nat, I shall have to drown my sorrows with a jigger of rye. Just one, that's all.
Nat : Can't be done, Mr Birnam.
Don Birnam : Can't? Now, let me guess why. My brother was here undermining my financial structure.
Nat : I didn't tell him nothin' about the wristwatch you left or your cufflinks.
Don Birnam : Thank you very much, Nat. Today you'll be glad to know we can barter on a cash basis.
Nat : One straight rye.
Don Birnam : That was the idea.
Show less «

Don Birnam : I can't let her see me, not when I'm off like this.
Nat : Why don't you cut it short?
Don Birnam : Don't talk like a child. You can't cut it short! You're on that merry-go-round, you got to ride it all the way. Round and round till that blasted music wears itself out and the thing dies down.
Show less «

Nat : Ain't it amazin' how many guys come down from Albany just to see Grant's tomb?

Don Birnam : Give me a drink!
Nat : And that other dame, the lady, I mean. I don't like what you're doing to her either.
Don Birnam : Oh, shut up!
Nat : You should have seen her come in here last night, looking for you. Her eyes all rainy, the mascara all washed away.
Don Birnam : Give me a drink!
Show less «

Nat : How the heck did she ever get mixed up with a guy who sops it up like you do?
Don Birnam : That's a problem, isn't it. That nice young man who drinks and a high class young lady and how did she ever get mixed up with him? And why does he drink? And why doesn't he stop? That's my novel, Nat. I wanted to start writing it out in the country. Morbid stuff. Nothing for the book-of-the-month club. A horror story! The confessions of a booze addict. The log book of an alcoholic. Oh, come on, Nat, break down, will ya?
[Nat pours Don another drink] 
Don Birnam : You know what I'm going to call my novel? The Bottle. That's all. Very simply, The Bottle. I've got all here in my mind.
Show less «